Random thoughts on the blue highways.
You never know what you will find on the blue highways. Particularly when the choice at an intersection is controlled by the roll of a die. About the only rule is that highway onramps don't count as an intersection. You don't even have to roll the die. If one road looks interesting, go for it.

About Me

Don't look for me much on the big news sites, I skim through them, but rarely find much that is worth commenting on. As a young son once said "We don't watch TV news, dad won't let us watch violence programs." I still don't.
Interests are religion, marketing theory (that is not an oxymoron,) Advertizing, digital photography, APOD, and historically, rocket science.
e-mail: jcarlinbl@gmail.com
The literary version is found at Thinking On the Blue Roads
The raw data for which can be found on The Blue Roads of Thinking.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

What is Reality

Mythical reality (including religions)
which is a widely recognized group of mythical characters and
situations that are generally accepted as being real and useful by a
culture. It is not necessary to have read the Brothers Grimm to know
about Little Red Riding hood.

Fictional reality which is a group of
fictional characters and situations which those wishing to suspend
disbelief for the duration of the fictional events, or the discussion of
them are treated as real.

Observable reality which are
characters and situations that can be shown to be real to all rational
observers. Note that truth values are not a given in observable
reality.

The
brain has objectively observable belief centers that interpret reality
in ways that enhance survivability. On the savannah interpreting
certain patterns in the windblown grass as a tiger, may have survival
benefits even though the reality is that they are only wind effects.

In
a society controlled by vuvuzelas mediating for a vicious, vengeful God
it may be a survival benefit to believe in a vicious, vengeful God even
though reality is that it is vicious, vengeful vuvuzelas that should be
feared.

As for all other "realities", while the brain and its functions are part of objective reality, the contents
of its concepts do not necessarily have objective counterparts ie don't
refer to things with objective reality. Examples are 'unicorn', 'two',
'supernatural being', 'justice', 'Donald Duck', 'some chairs' and so on.

RationaistBS is no different from otherBS. No
matter how many times you explain that 'Donald Duck' is a real
fictional character, the realities of which can be discussed by anyone
familiar with Disney™ movies, tv shows, comic books, etc. a rationalist
will insist that 'Donald Duck' is imaginary with no objective reality.

As
Blü himself has discussed 'Donald Duck' has three fingers and a thumb
on each 'wing,' is anthropomorphic, talks English in English speaking
countries but is multilingual, generally wears a blue sailor hat, a blue
man's shirt, and a red bow tie. This is factual information that
exists independently of any person's mind and can in fact be verified by
a search ofDonald Duck images.

I
might suggest that 'Donald Duck" is real for a majority of the people
in the world, whereas something like a benzene ring exists only in the
imagination of a few chemists SEMs are fakes, and frequently involves a
snake biting its own tail even for chemists.

a rationalist will insist that 'Donald Duck' is imaginary with no objective reality.

We
have descriptions and images and impersonations of Donald Duck.
However, no real Donald Duck exists outside of imagination. He's a
fictitious being.

No one has ever maintained that Donald Duck is a being. Just that he is
a fictitious reality. A reality that exists and is independently
verifiable by any rational person independent of anyone's imagination.

Please
note the working of the conceptual block which changes "reality" into
"being." It doesn't really change anything but provides a mental fig
leaf to cover the "reality" of the fictional "being" as "being" can be
interpreted as a once or presently living touchable, interacting
entity. All of which is critically important to denying God as a
Mythical (religious) reality.